


somebody to love

by rearviewziall (larryswildhearts)



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Angst, Coming Out, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Smut, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Pining, Self-Acceptance, Self-Discovery, Self-Hatred, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-19
Updated: 2020-01-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:35:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22320391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/larryswildhearts/pseuds/rearviewziall
Summary: Niall finally admits to himself what he's truly known all along.
Relationships: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne/Original Female Character(s), Niall Horan/Original Female Character(s), Niall Horan/Zayn Malik
Comments: 5
Kudos: 12





	somebody to love

**Author's Note:**

> a little thing I decided to start bc the ziall tag was too dry, not sure if I will continue it, depending on how many people want me to (:,, not beta'd so sorry if there are any typos,, enjoy !!

Niall’s cheeks were flushed, lips wet from the beers he had been persuaded to chug. He knew he had to slow down because at this rate, the next thing passing his lips would be going straight into the toilet. He looked at Louis and waved his hand, “Stop, stop, I tap out,” he coughed out, as he wiped his lips with the back of his hand. He ignored the smug smirk on his best friend’s face, more confused as to the fact that Louis looked more than fine despite him drinking the same or even more beer than him. 

Despite his legs already threatening to give out due to how the room was spinning he still managed to stumble onto the couch that was conveniently nearby. He slumped onto it and leaned back, barely hearing Louis call him weak over the loud music blaring out of the speakers. He groaned as he felt the beer mixing with the shots he had done earlier (not the wisest decision on his part) as he watched Louis fuck off somewhere with a curly haired lad. 

“I’m never listening to Louis fucking Tomlinson again,” he grumbled to himself as he tried his best to regain his composure. He didn’t want to find himself puking in the middle of the party- not at all. He was so focused on trying to calm down the storm in his stomach that he missed the shift of the couch and the press of a warm body against his.

“You good mate?” Niall looked over, a bit startled by the lad’s looks. He didn’t swing that way- but this man was definitely the best looking man he had ever seen in his life. He took a deep breath: maybe he really had become weak with his alcohol?

“Yeah, yeah.” Niall said, slightly startled by how hoarse his voice sounded, his accent thicker then intended too. He cleared his throat. “I’m good, I’m good, I just think I’ve had a bit too much,” He sheepishly confessed, lifting up the beer bottle he was still holding and giving it a small shake as to prove that it was empty. 

“Thought so, saw you chugging more than a few with your mate over there,” The raven haired lad said pointing over to the table with the stack of empty beer bottles, “it was pretty funny, especially once I realised your friend tapped out after the fourth and just kept on faking it from there,” 

“Are you fucking-“ Niall shook his head, rubbing his forehead.”I fucking hate him,” Niall said despite the dumb smile on his face. He deserved it really. He had made Louis do that a couple months back. Louis had promised that he would get Niall back from it- and he was genuinely impressed that the lad had done it months later when Niall had completely forgotten about it. 

“Anyways, I didn’t catch your name?” The man said bumping his knee gently into Niall’s making the Irish lad look down at their legs. He came into the realisation at how close they had sat despite the couch being empty. He didn’t mind though. 

“My name?” Niall echoed,

“Uh- you know- what people, call you,” Niall wanted to wipe that smirk off his face, but decided to look away to hide how his cheeks burned instead. 

“Niall,” he mumbled before licking his lips and looking back at the lad. “you?”

“My name’s Zayn.” Zayn. Niall thought, easy to remember for sure. 

He nodded and looked over his features. “It’s a nice name,” He said, not missing how Zayn’s eyes shifted to Niall’s lips as he licked them. “well, its nice to meet you Zayn.”

“Its nice to meet you too Niall,” Zayn said before tearing his eyes off of Niall for the first time since their little encounter. “Anyways, I need to go, my friend’s calling me,” Zayn chuckled. “Need to help him out, its my party after all.” Zayn said, leaving Niall a bit shocked and embarrassed. 

As soon as Zayn was out of his sight Niall couldn’t stop thinking about his brown eyes, feeling like he wanted to drown into the pool of chocolate. He decided to push the thoughts aside though and got up. Something rose in his throat from the speed of him standing but he willed it down before he began to walk in search of Louis. After a couple of minutes he found him, in the back garden, chatting with a short haired muscular lad, probably their age. 

“Uhm, Louis?” Niall asked after approaching them. He gave the stranger a smile and looked at Louis who was clearly barely giving Niall his attention. “I just met the person throwing the party, do you think that’s a cue for us to leave?” Niall asked sheepishly before hearing the stranger laugh. 

“Oh- you met Zayn? Don’t worry he’s really chill. Liam by the way,” he said holding up his beer bottle to cheer even though everyone else was empty handed. “Plus, you’re cute anyways, so he definitely won’t mind,” Liam said making Niall blush again.

“Sorry to break it to you Li, Niall is as straight as a ruler,” Louis chuckled nudging Niall’s side. Niall let out a forced nervous laugh before nodding. “Yeah, yeah” he said, trying not to overthink how sure Louis sounded. 

“I’m sorry for crashing your friend’s party though,” Niall said turning to Liam as he scratched the back of his head “and for drinking probably drinking too many beer cans.”  
Liam laughed and simply shook his head, “Kind of grateful that you drank that many, if not we would be dealing with a lot of more drunk people around here.”

————

The next morning Niall woke up with a hammer banging against his head and a desert in his mouth. He didn’t bother to sit up as he reached for his bedside table, feeling around it before getting ahold of his phone. He pressed the home button and sighed when it didn’t turn on. He plugged it in before getting up and walking slowly to the kitchen. 

He looked through his cupboard, grabbing a random mug to help him quench his thirst. Tiredly, he filled it with water, soon bringing it to his lips along with the pills he had grabbed, in aims to help him drown away the headache.

“You finally awake huh?” Louis asked, coming up from behind him almost startling him. 

“Fuck Louis- you scared the shit out of me.” Niall grumbled, “Why are you up so early?” 

“Mate it’s like almost two in the afternoon,” He laughed making Niall roll his eyes as he popped a piece of bread into the toaster. The sharp pain in his stomach serving as a warning of his hunger. 

The lights were still too bright for his sanity so he kept his gaze low, mostly fixed onto Louis’ vans. After a moment of silence he grew aware that Louis was fully dressed to go out. “Where are you heading out to?” Niall asked. 

“We are heading out to Zayn and Liam’s again,” Niall gave Louis a look of confusion, not fully understanding why they were to go there again. They had already crashed the party the night before, so he couldn’t really understand why. 

“Okay, first of all, I am not going anywhere, and second of all, why are you going there?” He asked mainly in disbelief. His head was still pounding and he could barely stand up for too long, even now he had his back pressed against the counter as support. “I’m pretty sure they aren’t too fond of us invading their home after crashing their party last night,”

“I might’ve fibbed a bit, we didn’t really crash a party.” Louis confessed, making Niall look at him skeptically.

“They have another roommate, his name is Harry, ring a bell? He invited me.” The blonde lad stared at his friend before realising who he was talking about

“The one from your elective class that you hooked up with? Why didn’t you tell me?” 

“Bingo!” Louis said smugly. “Because, well, you wouldn’t have wanted to accompany me, you’d say you didn’t want to third wheel or whatever.” Louis said, taking Niall’s silence as a sign that he was correct. “Anyways, we might have hooked up in his room again last night and he passed me his number and he asked us to come over today.” Louis said with a shrug. Niall furrowed his eyebrows, not even understanding when Louis had had the time to hook up with him. “So I said we would go. Now please just get ready,” 

“Why would he ask me to come if he’s clearly interested in sleeping with you?” Niall grumbled, grabbing the piece of toast right after it popped out. He mumbled out a curse when it burned his hand, putting it on the counter quickly. Louis simply rolled his eyes and shrugged, telling Niall to get ready so they could leave as soon as possible. 

————-

Niall rested his head onto the car’s window as Louis started the car. He was exhausted but he was never the one to say no when somebody asked something from him. As soon as they arrived he took off his seatbelt and stepped out of the car with Louis, heading towards the house. It looked much nicer under the daylight without a bunch of drunk kids looming around the place. 

Niall was honestly impressed as he looked at the porch- despite the amount of people he remembered last night the place wasn’t trashed at all. Louis hummed and mumbled something under his breath as he rang the doorbell. Niall didn’t bother to ask. 

They were let in with who Niall figured was Harry, the boy was tall and lanky with dimples that complimented his face nicely. “Hi, I’m Niall,” He introduced himself, bringing his hand out to shake Harry’s. Harry though clearly had another plan, soon pulling Niall close and hugging him only startling the lad just a tiny bit. Niall hugged him back half heartedly since he wasn’t really a big fan of uninvited physical contact. Harry didn’t seem to realise though since he held onto Niall a bit longer than he was comfortable with. 

“Welcome, just go over there to the living room yeah?” Harry said and soon was taking Louis and him to the couches. 

“You guys really cleaned up pretty fast hm?” Niall asked looking around, all the piles of cups, bottles, cans were cleared out and he was honestly quite impressed. He watched Louis and Harry manoeuvre around each other swiftly, somehow in sync despite only seeing each other several times. 

Niall sat on the couch awkwardly, sinking into the seat as he watched the two guys flirt with each other almost shamelessly. He wanted to shrink and disappear not quite understanding why he was there in the first place. The floor from the hallway creaked, making the blonde look over the doorway, just to see a very shirtless and tattooed Zayn walking into the living room. 

“Morning,” He said, voice scruffier and somehow deeper than the night before. He was rubbing his eyes tiredly as he walked towards the kitchen, the only thing covering him being the boxers that were low on his hips. Niall slowly lifted his gaze, blushing when Zayn was looking at him with the same smug from last night. It’s like Zayn knew he was attractive, not only by what he was wearing (or the lack thereof) but also by the way he carried himself into the room as he walked in.

“What are you doing here?” He asked, and although the question floated in the air, open for both Louis and Niall, Niall could feel Zayn’s eyes burning into him. “not complaining, just curious,” He said before nodding over to both Harry and Louis. Niall watched the steam come out of the coffee cup as Zayn poured himself a mug. 

He answered with a shrug. “Harry invited us,” Niall explained, looking over at Harry who was wearing something far from an innocent smile. 

“Hmm, okay,” Zayn said, giving Harry a bit of an unreadable look. “What are you guys planning to do?” He followed up, coming closer to them as he scratched his bare stomach. 

Niall tried his best to not let his eyes scan over Zayn’s torso. He really did. But “Uhm,” he mumbled trying to recollect his thoughts, “I have no idea actually, was dragged here too,” He explained, looking at Harry for some explanation.

“I just thought we could go out and hang somewhere or eat in,” Harry said shrugging, “Zayn is planning to join us too of course.” Niall looked at Harry and then at Zayn. It was clear by the state Zayn was in he had had no intentions or even an idea of what was going on. He felt a bit bad for him really, but considering the fact that Louis had dragged him along as well he didn’t feel too bad. 

Harry seemed to notice Zayn’s expression and his unwillingness to come, “Please, if you don’t come Niall will have to third-wheel,” He said, dragging the please as much as he could whilst somehow not sounding even mildly annoying. Niall blushed when Zayn’s gaze shifted on him, shrugging when Zayn asked “Do you want me to come with?”

“Its fine really- I just- Would have stayed at home,” he said giving Louis one of his own looks. “But really, do whatever you want”, his answer was clearly not pleasing enough, only getting Zayn to ask, “Niall, do you want me to come with?”, making the blonde lad feel even more embarrassed. 

“Yeah, I would appreciate it a lot actually.”

**Author's Note:**

> hey, if you made it all the way down I hope you enjoyed it! pls leave a comment or kudos so I know if I should continue it xx


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